Credit Connect

Technology specialist Webio has been signed up to take part in specialist google programme. Webio will take part in the Blackbox Connect 20 programme which runs from November 28th to December 8th, and brings founders from top accelerators around the world to take part in a two-week, fully immersive program where they live and work in San Francisco, collaborate with like-minded entrepreneurs from around the world, and partake in an intensive agenda of meetings and workshops with investors, experts and executives from the Silicon Valley community.

There is a shift towards conversational interfaces that will redefine how companies interact with customers and how they will be marketed to in a conversational manner. Enterprises in retail, financial services and hospitality are particularly sensitive to this shift and many have already seen the effect on their bottom line with the shift to mobile apps. Today, more than 60 million companies are Messenger enabled and over 2bn messages per month are already being sent between companies and their customers through this channel alone.

Webio CEO Cormac O’Neill said “We have a very simple question for companies”, “When all your customers have moved to messaging apps and voice interfaces, how are you going to provide customer service?”

“Enterprises have to be coherent across all messaging channels and now also have to know that customers have just asked Google Home a question. This is where conversational middleware steps in linking customer conversations to existing digital assets and enterprise systems”. Webio is the conversational middleware company that makes this happen so that no matter which channel customers make contact on, the business can automatically respond, reply andaction. Dublin and Ireland are very well placed to succeed in this new field of conversational interfaces. Look at the success domestic players are having on the global stage.”

Niall McEvoy, Manager of Enterprise Ireland’s High Potential Start-Ups ICT Department, added: “Webio is an innovative Irish start-up that has made strong technical and commercial progress, developing a world leading technology platform in the rapidly growing conversational messaging space. The company is combining artificial intelligence with global ambition to make easier customer engagement across all channels. Enterprise Ireland looks forward to continuing to work with Webio as they expand and scale in international markets.”